Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

Member discussion regarding the methods, varieties and merits of growing tomatoes.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old April 9, 2019   #16
JosephineRose
Tomatovillian™
 
JosephineRose's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: California
Posts: 383
Default

Once I started paying attention to price, I started making my own seed start and potting up mix. Haven't graduated to my own container mix yet but it is coming. I have played with a coir/peat combo for giant grow bags on onions only. I need to get my compost bin at the new house really singing and then I will try my own mix.



Generally I have found the coir very drying to my plants and also causes them to yellow. I have yet to have a good experience with it as a primary medium.



I buy the sunshine organic peat moss by the bale at home depot and one bag giant of Vigoro perlite and one of vermiculite. I always have a bag of worm castings around. I buy these once every two years or so and it lasts me forever. Costs less than $60 out the door... the seed starting mixes alone are $8-9 for a small bag.



My seed mix is 5 parts finely sifted peat, two parts vermiculite and one part perlite. I find the worm castings in starting mix promotes fungus so I avoid it until the plants are ready to pot up and are seeking more nutrients.



The potting mix is also 5 parts sifted peat (though I use a wider sifting insert on it), two parts perlite, one part vermiculite and 1-2 parts sifted worm castings.

Last edited by JosephineRose; April 9, 2019 at 01:59 PM. Reason: Peet's is a coffee, peat is a moss.
JosephineRose is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 9, 2019   #17
rnewste
Tomatovillian™
 
rnewste's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Campbell, CA
Posts: 4,064
Default

Over the past 8 years I have experimented with dozens of combo mixes optimized for self-watering containers (EarthBox and my 31 gallon EarthTainers). What I have found to be the best combo mix is a 3-2-1 ratio of Pro-Mix, Microbark, and Perlite.

You want good moisture wicking from the water reservoir without getting the mix too wet. In my experiments, both coir and Vermiculite retained excess moisture which led to root rot. Again, this 3-2-1 ratio is suited to SWC applications, so your own container application may vary.

Here are a pair of Momotaro plants on April 9 in this mix. The plants are starting to flower:




Raybo
rnewste is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 9, 2019   #18
friedgreen51
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 159
Default Potting Mix

We buy mini pine bark nuggets at Lowe's Home Improvement and run it through the chipper/shredder. We take the bag the mini pine bark nuggets comes in and using a bungee cord place it over the discharge outlet of the chipper/shredder and refill the bag with our now pine bark fines. Mini pine bark nuggets were on sale at Lowe's over the weekend 4 for $10.

Also use some Miracle Grow Potting Mix, Black Kow, Peat Moss, and O'Reilly Floor Absorb in my potting mix. The ratio I use is 4 parts Pine Bark Fines, and 1 part each of the above.
friedgreen51 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 10, 2019   #19
edweather
Tomatovillian™
 
edweather's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Southeast GA, USDA 9a, HZ9, Sunset Z28
Posts: 392
Default

I love the chipper/shredder idea.....wish I had one.
__________________
You'll be surprised what you'll never have to do, if you put it off long enough.
edweather is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 13, 2019   #20
throwaway
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Zone 6
Posts: 92
Default

I've contemplated getting that Patriot plug in chipper/shredder. Wonder if it would be up to the task.

On a side note, thanks to everybody for the responses. I'll be hitting this thread for years as a reference.
throwaway is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 13, 2019   #21
friedgreen51
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 159
Default Home Brew Potting Mix

If you choose to try the pine bark mini nuggets and shred them through a chipper shredder be sure you get the natural non-colored pine bark nuggets. Stay away from the black, red, and brown artificially colored.
friedgreen51 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:04 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★